[Ashborn-B1] 89. Incubation (Patreon)

LXXXIX

Incubation

Judith floated in a sea of white. Though she was aware, her mind was empty. With her eyes closed, she felt she could see everywhere at once. She caught glimpses of the holy blade and the others arriving at the temple entrance. Of Tirion barking orders, of the other holy blades joining them.

‘The Dagger,’ so their empire had coined Tirion. It was a title of respect, for it was related to ‘The Blade,’ which was a name only those of the head family could hold.

In that regard, Tirion was the closest thing to Caelia. Which meant he barely stood at the foot of the mountain her niece had climbed.

These thoughts entered and exited her head like a fleeting breeze. As did any others.

‘Meditation is strange.’

It was one of the few things everyone could learn. However, not every person had the same…’lay’ for it. Some would have trouble sitting still no matter how many years they spent pracitising. For them, meditation was like taking a bunch of chains and locking themselves up as tightly as they could. Others sank into meditation like it was second nature in their first year of training. For them, meditation was a state of being akin to being awake. It was just something that they did.

Every serious disciple, no matter their talent, strived to belong to the latter group. Meditation was what most cultivators would spend their whole lives doing, after all.

And so Judith had heard stories of the great meditators of their age. Had been forced to study and recite their experiences until her mother was satisfied and called her ‘Little Ju.’

Right now, Judith felt herself floating in a place so mystical it must be one of the areas described in those stories. It was an area beyond the physical, with no known entry or exit point. The Quiet Heart Monastery called it ‘Netu,’ for it was a place where nothing at all existed. The laymen coined it ‘the void.’ A term that made scholars cry out, for it was easy to confuse with the actual element of void.

I call it your ‘soul,‘ Judith heard her mother say. She was seated on the rocking chair in front of their fireplace again. There was a smile on her lips. Simple, right, Little Ju?

Judith floated up into the boundless, white skies, following a nigh invisible tug.

Little Ju. The echo of the name reverberated through her spirit.

She smiled. What a lovely name. When she’d still been ten years old—even now if she was being honest—there was nothing she enjoyed hearing more than that name.

It’s why she’d done her best to master everything her mother tried to teach her.

Meditation was only one of them. Like everything else, she had not excelled at it. If she had to place herself on the scale she used earlier, she’d put herself closer to the ‘talentless quack’ than the ‘natural pontificators.’

So why did she currently feel so at peace? How had a talentless quack like her managed to enter a state of calm so complete despite the state of her physical body…

‘Ah.’ Her soul reverberated with the thought. ‘It’s because I’m dying.’

Dorothy was fighting the art, but Vyke’s attack was powerful. It was killing her even though Dorothy was doing her absolute best.

The world chuckled with her. ‘A single attack…he’s really a menace.’

Her body should probably have gone into panic after she realised she was dying. And maybe it was. Her mind didn’t notice, at least.

Judith merely continued drifting through the sea of white.

Clicks echoed from within her muscles, which shocked her world like lighting strikes.

Skul ate the distance towards the king like the monster was going to be the final meal he’d have in his life. Behind him, the air whirled, quaked with the passing of the souls he carried on his person.

I ordered Saber towards the king at an angle and watched from his back as Gaje ripped into the king’s heel.

‘He’s fast.’

Faster than any of my summons.

‘I’ll have to bunker down to stand a chance.’

Wrap myself in roots? His powers may let him cut through them with ease.

‘Should I test it?’

Skul reached the king and sank his fangs into the frost. The ice shattered upon impact.

My gaze narrowed. ‘Throw a few testers at him while he’s fighting?’

The king’s roar drowned out the remainder of my thoughts. Icy winds whipped out from the giant and covered the plane.

Luckily, Saber’s shroud guarded me against the worst of it. Less lucky was that the king raised his hands. Blue light flashed in his palm.

Saber accelerated to his top speed. His nails melted through the ground as he zigzagged across the field. The first of the beams hurled into the ground behind us and froze each of his tracks with an afterthought. Dozens more slammed into the world afterwards.

I flexed my arms. Wood burst from the ground to form a series of archways. The roots didn’t actually block the attacks. However, they slowed down the blasts enough for Saber to dodge.

He zipped past one which almost brushed the top of my head.

I blinked. ‘He’s slinging with less power.’

These attacks didn’t carry the same power as that first one he’d fired. Was it a result of disconnecting him from the chair? He should have a pool of energy stored up, though…

My senses roved through the king as Saber closed the distance. Eyes widened. ‘His core is shrinking.’

Saber jumped sharply to the right to get around a final beam that would’ve sheared through us both.

I kept my gaze on the king. My mind whirled. ‘It’s because of his size.’

Though the king was a lvl. 70 monster, no monster of that level had business being that large. It was then also a feat only made possible by the shrine. However, now that the powerlines feeding it had been cut off, the king was losing energy by merely existing.

And at a rapid rate at that.

On a whim, I identified him again.

[Frost Giant King - lvl. 65]

That was a five level drop from when the shrine started.

I exhaled. ‘We can do this.’

If the king’s attacks were only getting weaker, we were in no danger of dying. The other clans should be keeping the few golems we left alive, too. And since the king hadn’t summoned another wave, that part of our strategy must’ve worked.

He was really out of option—

My head whipped up just as the king swiped his arms. A thousands mounds burst from the ground and rose into a myriad of shapes.

Golems? What?! How? The others should’ve…

A thick cloud of black followed a distant spark near one of the pillars.

“That’s where Raven is stationed…”

I whirled on Gaje. “Oy! What’s going on with your clan?”

The Nightmare didn’t stop cleaving apart the king’s heel, but some of his eyes whirled in the direction of the pillar.

“Not…sure…” he grumbled.

Which drew a serious frown onto my forehead. He wasn’t sure? If there was a fight happening, his clan would be doing the instigating. However, I could tell from his tone that he really wasn’t aware of what was going on.

But whatever was happening there no longer mattered. Mounds of frost snapped and the golems hiding inside burst out of their cocoons. Every single one turned on us.

I grimaced. ‘Dammit. It was going so well, too.’

As if to laugh at my previous confidence, a bipedal, insectoid golem with blades for arms launched at my head. Roots shot from the ground to block its path—but the sheer force behind the leap would break through the hasty wall. Skul was too far away. Saber was being carried forwards by his momentum and couldn’t dodge.

My blade freed its sheathe. The insectoid golem’s blades caught on my own. Though I kept myself from being beheaded, I had no base to work with, so the monster carried me off Saber’s back.

We hurled through the air. With a grunt, I threw the beast away while still flying backwards. Then I flipped and landed on my feet. I didn’t need spiritual senses to know a bunch of golems were firing their attacks at me.

I jabbed my blade into the earth and linked my hands. Walls pierced the foundation of the shrine and boxed me in. They grew so tall they partially shrouded the world in darkness. A darkness which the two flaming, expanding gates beside me chased away.

Saber and Skul rushed into the arena. The ashenblood roared to show his fury—to think a mongrel had dared strike me from his back!

My balekin cried out as well. Not in anger but in hunger, for he knew what was coming.

The first of the flying golems scaled the walls. Essence flared within them and a volley of ice spears rained down to cover the entire width of the cage. I shaped an archway over our heads. The spear that came the closest to punching through the barrier stopped an inch over my head.

I didn’t blink.

Light burst into the arena as part of the barrier broke. A hulking brute of a golem that was shaped like a ball. Its charge didn’t stop and it barrelled straight for us. A web of wood toppled the beast long before it got near. When Skul hurled forwards, its existence ended within a breath.

But it’d done its job.

More javelins flew for our heads and more holes opened in the walls.

My lips pulled into a line. “Saber.”

The flametalon shot upwards while it was still forming to answer Saber’s call.

Another chunk of the walls to our rear was cut through. The same golem who’d carried me off Saber’s back entered through one of the exits with a dozen other golems behind it.

The entire barrier was beginning to tremble.

‘This is getting dangerous.’

The flametalon reached the top of the arena, so I peered through its eyes. Gaje was cutting through a squad of golems, felling monsters quicker than an auctioneer raised the price. He was like a small island in a wide stretch of ocean.

This was the last wave, and the king had decided to send every soldier towards us.

The giant had managed to break the roots holding it down now that Gaje was no longer actively damaging it. By now, it’d taken two more steps towards the central pillar. Had it not shrunk, it would’ve already been within arm’s reach. As it stood now, it had a few more steps to go.

The central column burned so bright it screamed. Heat passed over everything in its vicinity and reached us even here, inside my barrier.

‘I have to get there.’

Breathing in, I gathered a swirl of roots beneath our feet. The pillar rose from the soil and shot Saber and I towards one of the walls. A hole widened in the barrier with a mental command, allowing the two of us through.

‘Skul, return for now.’

He collapsed into wisps.

Saber jumped off my taxi service and dashed towards the pillars the moment he touched the ground. I kept rising into the air.

Above me, the flametalon had already dived into the gate I’d crafted for it. I peeked into the garden to judge the angle. Flying golems cried and whirled on me.

Another column burst horizontally from the one I was riding currently. I hopped over to that one and dodged a volley that would’ve grated me like cheese.

Then the ground sank away from me.

I whirled around as I tumbled. The insectoid had cut through the base of the pillar.

‘Fucking asshole.’

But my curse lacked heat. The flametalon was ready.

The portal carved into the world right as the flying golems prepared another salvo. The flametalon burst out with all the agility and momentum owed to its great physique.

I curled up into a ball so the flametalon’s claws could wrap around me fully. The moment it grabbed me, I swallowed a cry. Those talons were so sharp they cut me despite my hardened skin and Saber’s shroud!

‘Suffering from success.’

Behind me. The golems turned into dots. Some cries echoed from above to chase us, but the flametalon was too fast for the clumsy flying golems. I glanced at the horizon.

The king was in the process of taking another step.

‘We’ll make it.’

I was too heavy for the flametalon, so the bird was already descending. However, the angle was sufficient. We’d end up near the king. Once we landed, I’d use Saber’s flame horizon to take down the king.

The move would drain his physique. That meant that, though the powerlines were feeding us, there’d be a timer on how quick he could use it again. And that left me with one move less to fight Gaje or anyone else.

But it was necessary.

So I thought as the flametalon carried me toward our quarry.